The Pentagon is the biggest office building in the world,[5][6] but any place in the building can be reached within 7 minutes.[7]

They began building it on September 11, 1941. Exactly sixty years later, on September 11, 2001, it was hit with an airplane by terrorists.[8] One hundred eighty-nine people in the building were killed.

Contents

The Pentagon has the most floor area of any building in the world. It has a total floor area of 6,500,000 sq ft (604,000 m2). Offices are 3,700,000 sq ft (344,000 m2).[9][10] Approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees[6] and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel work in the Pentagon. It has five sides, five floors above ground, two basement levels, and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5 mi (28.2 km)[6] of corridors. The Pentagon includes a five-acre (20,000 m2) central plaza, which is shaped like a pentagon.[11]

The concentric rings are named (from the center out) as "A" through "E" (with in addition "F" and "G" in the basement). "E" Ring offices are the only ones with outside views and are generally occupied by senior officials. Office numbers go clockwise around each of the rings, and have two parts: a nearest-corridor number (1 to 10) followed by a bay number (00 to 99), so office numbers range from 100 to 1099. These corridors radiate out from the central courtyard, with corridor 1 beginning with the Concourse's south end. Each numbered radial corridor intersects with the corresponding numbered group of offices (for example, corridor 5 divides the 500 series office block). There are a number of historical displays in the building, particularly in the "A" and "E" rings.

Floors in the Pentagon are lettered "B" for Basement and "M" for Mezzanine, both of which are below ground level. The concourse is located on the second floor at the metro entrance. Above ground floors are numbered 1 to 5. Room numbers are given as the floor, concentric ring, and office number (which is in turn the nearest corridor number followed by the bay number). So, office 2B315 is on the second floor, B ring, and nearest to corridor 3 (between corridors 2 and 3). One way to get to this office would be to go to the second floor, get to the A (innermost) ring, go to and take corridor 3, and then turn left on ring B to get to bay 15.[12]

A person can walk between any two points in less than seven minutes.[13]

The Pentagon Athletic Center (PAC) is a fitness center for military and civilian staff. It opened in a separate building on the north side of the Pentagon in 2004.[15] Each year, the Pentagon grounds hold the Marine Corps Marathon and the Army Ten-Miler running events.

The public may take a 60 minute long tour of the building.[16] Tourists also visit the Pentagon Memorial that is on the building's west side.[17]

↑"Pentagon Hot Dog Stand, Cold War Legend, to be Torn Down". United States Department of Defense. September 20, 2006. Retrieved May 6, 2010. 'It's rumored that a portion of their (Soviet) nuclear arsenal was directed at that building, the Pentagon hot dog stand,' tour guides tell visitors as they pass the stand. 'This is where the building earned the nickname Cafe Ground Zero, the deadliest hot dog stand in the world.'